Scramble for an egg! In an
airborne clash, an Egyptian vul
ture hurls himself against an
intruding hooded vulture; two
other Egyptians huddle beside
a prospective feast. The defend
ing vulture won no gratitude
from his colleagues; the pair
cracked open the ostrich egg
with stones and devoured every
scrap themselves. The author
found cooperation between
even two birds exceptional.
Usually a dominant individual
drives away all others, who
skulk nearby, throwing stones
at the ground in frustration.
This battle between vultures
defies the usual peck order,
which finds Egyptian vultures
generally giving way to the
more aggressive hooded species.
Egyptian vultures appeared to
be the only tool-users; the au
thor saw no evidence of other
species throwing stones.
The van Lawicks this year
hope to raise an Egyptian vul
ture away from its kind to
determine whether it inherits
the stone-throwing impulse or
learns from other birds.
It was during this test that a tourist car
drove up.
"Oh, look!" a woman said. "That bird's
throwing stones."
"So it is," replied her companion in a com
pletely uninterested tone. Then he spoke to
Hugo: "Can you tell us where the lions are?"
Hugo directed him, and the couple drove off
without a backward glance.
"What a contrast to the old Masai!" Hugo
commented. "Do you recall how fascinated
he was?"
How well I remembered. We were observ
ing a pair of Egyptian vultures breaking eggs
at Olduvai Gorge. We had found them near
a Masai manyatta, or village, and for more
than an hour the old headman sat so quietly
beside us that we forgot he was there.
When the birds had left, the chief joined us
as we went to collect the stone tools. With an
expression of wonder that I shall never forget,
he picked up a stone, gazed at it, and then,
640
with a faithful imitation of the vulture's force
ful movement, flung it down onto the broken
shell again and again.
"Ey!... ey!... ey!" he kept exclaiming in
amazement.
Spot Loses Out on a Scarlet Egg
Perhaps the tourists would have shown
more interest had they arrived when one of
our vultures, Spot, was trying to muster cour
age to approach an ostrich egg that we had
painted brilliant scarlet. After staring at the
bizarre object and repeatedly preening in an
agitated manner, Spot finally picked up a
stone and flew to within six feet of the egg.
He walked toward and away from it, cir
cling it and repeatedly throwing stones at the
ground (pages 634-5). When he was almost
close enough to hit the egg, two birds sud
denly swooped down and landed nearly on
top of it-Lame and Number Two.
They quickly cracked the egg with stones